Welcome to #TransTuesday! This week we’re talking about something that’s become a hot-button topic… for no good reason. It’s simply whiny bigots getting mad that the world isn’t the way they want it to be. Cis folks, your friends and family need to see this: CIS IS NOT A SLUR.
If you’ve somehow missed the chaotic nonsense surrounding this, it has to do with some notable bigots (I’m not mentioning their names to keep their bigoted supporters from flooding my mentions, but you know who they are) crying that “cis” is offensive to them.
Like, I can’t even believe that I have to explain this, but whaddayagonnado. If you’d like more info on exactly what happened, this Rolling Stone article has a pretty good rundown.
What’s interesting is that article uncovered evidence of the feelings of poor bigots being hurt by these three letters going back to 2014. This isn’t a new phenomenon, but with the drastic uptick in transphobia and terf-iness going on right now, it’s come back around.
If you need more info on TERFs, literally some of the worst people in the world, here’s the Trans Tuesday on them.
I know exactly why this uproar over letters 3, 9, and 19 of the english alphabet have hit such a nerve, but before I tell you why that is, let’s talk about what cis actually means.
“Cis” and “trans” are both Latin prefixes that have existed for as long as the language has, which means they’re some 2700 years old. They were not initially created in relation to gender, but in relation to EVERYTHING.
“Cis” means “on this side of” and “trans” means “across, on the other side of, or beyond.” That’s IT. It’s absolutely that simple. If we call something “transatlantic,” you know that means ACROSS or ON THE OTHER SIDE of or BEYOND the Atlantic Ocean.
And “cisatlantic” would mean ON THIS SIDE of the Atlantic Ocean. Literally that’s it! That’s all it is! This has been the definition of these prefixes for THOUSANDS OF YEARS.
When you apply these to gender, “cisgender” means “on the side of the gender you were assigned at birth” and “transgender” means “across, on the other side of, or beyond the gender you were assigned at birth.” Again, THAT IS IT. THAT IS ALL THEY MEAN.
Cis and trans are actually also used a lot in chemistry, to note whether atoms or compounds are on the same or opposing sides of a molecule. They’re actually super handy words that simply TELL YOU WHERE THINGS ARE IN RELATION TO EACH OTHER.
So how did these get applied to gender? Well… LET DANA DEFOSSE WHO COINED THE TERM “CISGENDER” IN 1994 tell you! She wrote an article about it for Huffington Post!
Here are some choice quotes: “I was struggling because there did not seem to be a way to describe people who were not transgender without inescapably couching them in normalcy and making transgender identity automatically the ‘other.’”
“I never believed that adding the word to the lexicon caused problems ― it only revealed them. Whatever the fate of the word, I feel compelled to speak out against the idea that it is hateful.”
“It saddens me to hear that people feel harmed by the word cisgender. Is the creation of the word to blame? No. Cisgender is just a straw man. It is easier to attack a word than to address the reasons people feel intimidated by discussions of gender identity.”
“The word is a threat because it linguistically separates biological sex from socially constructed categories of “woman” and “man.” That gender is a social construction undermines heteronormativity, critical to defending patriarchal sex roles and procreation.”
“It is not surprising that those who have garnered dominance and privilege from traditional gender roles feel threatened and compelled to lash out. These ideas are not new. But the word cisgender repackages them in a way that is more potent and visceral.”
And right there she gets at the heart of the matter and the reason for all of this. These transphobic bigots ARE MAD THEY DON’T GET TO THINK OF THEMSELVES AS THE DEFAULT HUMAN ANYMORE.
Annnnnd did you know this isn’t new? It’s right out of the bigot playbook. They did it when the word “straight” was applied to people who aren’t queer! As gay people felt safer to come out (albeit only a little more than before) decades ago, we needed a way to differentiate sexualities.
“Queer” used to be an ACTUAL slur, I’ll remind you, used by cisgender straight people to apply to ANYONE who wasn’t like them in a derogatory way. The LGBTQIA2S+ community reclaimed it and made it our own, but that is what an actual slur is.
Cis isn’t a slur, it’s an accurate descriptor, just like trans is. The only people who THINK it’s a slur are the ones who see and use trans as a slur. They think “trans” otherizes us, BECAUSE THAT IS HOW *THEY* USE IT.
And so to them, us using “cis” otherizes THEM in their minds. And if there is one thing the majority of white cishet people cannot stand, it is to feel even SLIGHTLY like the entire world is not set up for (and revolves around) them.
This is why many of the same people don’t even like being called “white” and see that as derogatory, too. THEY BELIEVE THEY ARE AND SHOULD BE THE DEFAULT HUMAN, and A N Y T H I N G contrary to that sets them off.
But listen to me right now:
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A DEFAULT HUMAN.
Our society and media suuuuuuuuuuuuure treats cishet white men like they’re exactly that, but they’re not. They’re not even the majority type of human on the planet! But in many countries, and certainly here in the US, they’re the ones with the most money and power.
White is not the default. Cis is not the default. Man is not the default. Straight is not the default. Non-disabled is not the default. Thin is not the default. THERE. IS. NO. DEFAULT. HUMAN.
There are, sadly, people who think “straight white male” is a slur. AGAIN, simply because they don’t want to have to even THINK about THEIR SPECIFIC IDENTITY NOT BEING “DEFAULT.”
As an avid and lifelong Trekkie, it saddens me to tell you even William Shatner has fallen victim to this (though by all accounts of the people who worked with him, he’s apparently never been a great dude).
A tweet from William Shatner from August 8, 2020, that reads: “No, ‘straight cis white man’ is the slur. That’s how it’s used most commonly in harassment. The fact they want to further call me ‘rich’ if that is a point of jealousy; let it be that. No putting straight white cis:
Imagine… imagine being SO INCREDIBLY PRIVILEGED that ACCURATE DESCRIPTORS of who you are feel offensive to you, as if you should simply get to be a human while eeeeveryone else has to have modifying descriptors based on how they’re not you.
SCREW THAT NOISE.
Our language is constantly growing and evolving, and it’s becoming MORE descriptive as we learn more about humanity and what it means to be human. And that’s a good thing.
The only people who disagree are bigots, and their opinions don’t mean anything anyway.
Tilly Bridges, end transmission.
tillysbridges@gmail.com